Appleby's: Ordered my food, and it came in a reasonable amount of time. As she sets the plate in front of me, the waitress asks, "Now, is there anything else you need right now?" Um, yes. Silverware. The waitress looked blankly at the table until it clicked that I had no utensils. "Oh, sorry! Be right back!"

So, I waited about 5 minutes. The waitress breezed by. "So, how is everything?"

"I don't know. I don't want to eat with my hands." She stared at me uncomprehendingly. Finally, I pointed out that I was still waiting on silverware. So as she left, I heard another table flag her down: "Miss! Miss! We still don't have our silverware!"

I figure any restaurant that can't figure out how to supply eating utensils is not a place where I can rely on them to produce a decent plate of food.

Logged

I have enough lithium in my medicine cabinet to power three cars across a sizeable desert. Which makes me officially...Three Cars Crazy

I had to get a tire repaired at a chain tire shop as I ran over a nail. Unfortunately, the tire couldn't be patched right as the damage was much worse than anticipated, and the tire place showed me a patch job wouldn't do. I had to get some more money to pay for a new tire & my car was on a hoist, plus no one was available to drive me to my credit union to withdraw extra cash. I walked a block to a Chase Bank to use an ATM to get the rest of the money needed. I placed my atm card in the machine, and the machine shut down then restarted but would not spit out my card. I went inside and the employees said no way to get the card back out of the machine, and flat out refused to give me any help when I explained why I had to use their machine.

Lucky for me, I was able to call up my credit union, who transferred some extra funds to my credit card account and made them available immediately when I explained my situation & gave them the details to do so. I was able to get my tire without an issue. The credit union issued me a new atm card within 2 weeks of the day's events.

**RyanAir**

I used them to fly from London to Denmark to visit a friend of mine for 4 days during an European vacation I took. On the way there, no issues with my luggage and stuff. On the way back, the employee charged me the equal of $20 USD in Danish Kroners for "overweight" luggage. My bags weighed the same as it did in London where I was not charged - i had 1 Suitcase to be checked, 1 tote bag as carry on & my handbag/purse. About half the flight was charged similar fees and was in the office paying up fees too. I will never fly them when in Europe, and have kept that promise since.

Jiffy Lube encourages high-pressure sales. I won't go back there, especially since I found out that they weren't actually changing my oil or filter when I took my car there.

My mother had issues with several car repair shops due to the same problem. The brakes would randomly deploy while you drove. Not frequently, or on short drives, but it was horrifying. No one believed my mother, and treated her like she was just a stupid woman who had no idea what she was talking about. (She finally convinced a repair guy to take it out for a full half hour, instead of the quick 5-min test drive he had originally done. He came back white as a ghost, and fixed the car.)

They always, always try to get me to (1) buy a new filter or (2) rotate my tires when I am there. Even if I'm like, "I just had that done two months ago... here." they still show me the filter and say how dirty it is when I can clearly see it's in pretty good shape. It's really odd.

That's kind of hilarious to me. One of the reasons why I didn't like Jiffy Lube the one time I went was because they wouldn't rotate my tires.

Now I just take my car to a mechanic that charges a little more than Jiffy Lube for an oil change, but gives me a lot more peace of mind so I don't worry that my car is going to explode on the interstate or something. Of course, they don't rotate tires, either.

He would get upset and complain that I have a small mouth, it was too hard to work on, like I shrunk my mouth on purpose just to piss him off. The worst was when I had to have 5 teeth removed, The novacaine wasn't enough and it HURT. I tried to tell him but he ignored me.

That dentist sounds like a combo of two orthodontists I visited growing up (had braces 2x) and I wish I could say their personalities kept me from having to go back, but they didn't. The first one treated me first as just my dentist then said I needed braces because I had an overbite and needed my teeth straightened. So on went the braces and anytime I said "Ow" or whimpered with pain as he was working, he'd keep working and just tease me for it. "Who's Al? Your boyfriend?" Or "Ohhhh it can't be that bad, you're making it out to be worse than it is." Um I was ten, was I expected to be stoic? When I complained to my parents, they essentially told me to suck it up and deal with it as it would pay off in the long run.

The second go-round of braces was because after the first ones came out, I wore my retainer but somehow I got an overbite again. It was decided I'd not only need braces again, but jaw surgery, a tonsillectomy, deviated septum fixed, and wisdom teeth pulled. Well the second ortho was an even bigger jerk. "Open your mouth...wider...wider. I'm going to need you to open it wider!" "Ih ith ahhh wad ah ahh an o'en it" (This is as wide as I can open it) Dentist would give an exasperated sigh, ask hygenist for something to prop my mouth open so wide it hurt my lips and jaw and ignored my complaints, just suggesting I make sure to use lots of chapstick. And he'd complain about how small my mouth is, as though it's something I could help. After the surgery and the recovery, he insisted I keep the braces on for another 2 years even though my teeth had been good and straightened with both rounds of braces. My parents of course didn't argue with him (even supported his attitude towards me) and insisted I keep wearing them.

I finally put my foot down on one visit and said I wanted them off ASAP because I was sick and tired of driving home once a month to get the braces tightened when I didn't need them any more, argued with both ortho and my mother and since I was 19, they really couldn't force me to keep them on and I had to sign a waiver.

At least I can choose not to take my boys to them and I'm a lot more discerning as to whether or not my kids REALLY need braces or they're just trying to pay off their college loan. I took them to one dentist last summer who said they both needed braces (at 8 and 6) and tried to talk me into a 3RD round because my side bite was off by the slightest of slightest bits. I refused and never went back again.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

Oh and I won't frequent Jiffy Lube either because of their high pressure sales and I fell for it at first when I was younger and naive but then I remembered DH records every bit of maintenance he did to the car. Once they tried to convince me I needed to pay to rotate the tires and I told them it had been done recently. (and DH is good at it, and can do oil changes too but where we lived he couldn't do it in the parking lot) The guy said "Oh well how recently because they need to be rotated again." "After a week?""

The last time I went there, it was just for an oil change. That was it. Two days later on the way to work my car starts shaking so violently that I was worried it was going to shake apart right there. DH and my dad looked at it and there was a spark plug that was loose that had been just fine before I took it into JL. Nice and tight where it was supposed to be.

I went over to the JL where I had it done and they swore up and down they didn't touch it, they don't touch spark plugs. We couldn't prove it was them aside from the fact that we hadn't had any problems before I took it in, 2 days before the difficulty with the plug.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

This is slightly off topic as I wouldn't be the client, but I have to wonder what this firm's clients make of them -

I emailed a letter to a firm of solicitors, using the address on their letterhead. I knew they'd need to take instructions, so wasn't surprised not to hear back immediately, but when I'd not heard after a week I rang to chase. Apparently they get a lot of spam to that email and anyway it was to the computer of a temporary secretary who wouldn't have been checking the emails. (so if their clients had tried emailing them?)

On another occasion I rang to speak to the person I was dealing with. He was out and his secretary was on the phone. Fair enough, but could I leave a message for him to ring me. No, as the person who had answered the phone was in that department. This is a tiny firm, so it wouldn't have been a question of trying to locate the right person. In addition, as I'd not given my name at that stage she had no idea that I wasn't a client or potential client.

1) Sear. i had a Sears washer. we'd had it for years. we finally decided we needed a dryer and had the space for one, went to the nearest Sears, which was about 45 minutes away. paid for the dryer. paid extra for Saturday delivery. got a call to schedule same delivery. no one shows up. the hubs calls, and is informed that they don't deliver on Saturday. hubs explains that we paid extra for Saturday delivery. why did we pay extra for something that doesn't exist? hubs drives the 45 minutes, presents all of our paperwork, and gets money back on the spot. we go to a local home improvement store on Sunday. they delivered my dryer the next day.

2) Jiffy Lube- i took the hubs truck in for an oil change. they call me out to recommend an insane list of things to be done for the 25,000 mile service, showing me all of the problems that had to be taken care of that had been neglected. all of which we had already done, a few months earlier during the 25,000 mile service. last time i went to Jiffy Lube.

3) Firestone. they had been our maintenance center of choice. we had taken both cars there for all repair work. our Transport van needed new struts. okay, made sense for the age and mileage of the vehicle. but then the same vehicle needed new struts a year later. now this is sounding fishy. so i take it somewhere else. where i am informed that the ORIGINAL struts are still on the vehicle. oh yeah, that was a long and fun fight, since we had the paperwork proving that Firestone had supposedly replaced said struts a year before, but the original struts were still on the van. it involved district and regional managers, neither of which could explain how, when we had been charged to replace the struts, and it was recommended that the struts be replaced again, that it just so happened that the factory installed struts were still on the vehicle.

4) buying my very first car that will be mine, all mine, without having to share with the children! first time i ever got to pick my paint color and my interior colors. i already sort of knew what i wanted, and i was paying. with cash money. that i had earned all by myself. the hubs wanted me to look at the Taurus, which he didn't think i would like, but he wanted me to see all of my options. the salesman showed us the car, then left to get the keys. the hubs and i were amusing ourselves looking at other cars. in fact we were looking at a version of the car that i ultimately bought somewhere else. it was the Sports model with a spoiler, and really UGLY red and black leather seats. we were kidding and joking and teasing about the butt-ugly seats. so the salesman comes back with the keys, keeps trying to address the hubs, and the hubs keeps pointing at me, saying "talk to her, it's her car, and she's paying for it." couldn't be more obvious. so we've examined the Taurus, and it was bigger than i wanted (which is what the hubs thought). and we are walking back towards the building. and i say to the hubs "oh and look at those butt ugly seats!" pointing. teasing again, and all was fine, until the salesman stated "look young lady, if that is the car your husband chooses to buy, you will take those seats and you WILL like them and be grateful that he bought you a car!"

i looked at the hubs, and told him i was done now, we were leaving. the salesman kept at him, trying to sell, while the hubs kept telling him that the salesman had just insulted the car buyer (me). finally, when we reached the building, and the salesman kept trying to push brochures into his hand and doing the whole fast talk thing, i pulled my checkbook out of my purse, tapped the salesman on the arm, told him that i had been prepared to buy for cash right then and there, but hey, what did i know, i was just a young lady who didn't know what she wanted, so i would take my money and buy elsewhere. i did, the next day. oh, and as to the young lady thing? at that point, i was 53.

1. Independent shop- My then husband had a Chevette. A 70's green Chevette. I don't remember what was wrong with it exactly, but it was something fairly major that he didn't think he could do himself. He took it to the shop and they looked it over and gave us a quote. He said we would think about it and that evening we discussed it and decided to take it to a friend who had a lift and he would try to fix it himself. Called the next morning and the mechanic flipped his lid. He said he had spent the whole night working on it and we owed him $$$ which was probably more than it was originally worth and that if we couldn't afford it we had to sign it over to him. I know better now, but we were young and stupid.

2. Chain brake and oil place- I purchased a car and for some unknown reason the owner's father (not even a shade tree mechanic) changed one break pad on her car. I took it to the shop and specifically told them they had to look at both sides and see how they were. They went and looked and said they were in great shape I didn't need anything so I asked if they had checked both sides. Mechanic says of course I did. The guy at the counter (who seemed to be above him) checked it and the other side had gone down so far it had damaged the rotor. (They are long gone now.)

3. Independent shop- Took my truck in for something. Can't remember what and the mechanic told me the transmission was going out. It needed $$$ or it would strand me on the side of the road somewhere. This was 10 years ago. I'm still driving it on the same transmission.

Doesn't really apply anymore, as we don't live in SoCal anymore or even on that coast, but after the second time DH and I patronized this one steak store in Fallbrook, we swore we'd never darken their door again. I can't remember the name of the place though.

First time we went it wasn't that bad, just mildly slow service and a waiter with an attitude that made us wonder if they were practicing for an audition for the stereotypical rude French waiter in American comedy movies and sitcoms.

Second time DH, DS1 and I went there for a birthday dinner for a friend's grandmother (friend's family "adopted" us, so we got invited to everything) and there were maybe 9 people there in total. It took the waiter about 10 minutes to get our drinks to us, another 10 to even get our appetizer orders, so I decided I definitely needed to put in DS's order with the appetizers, since I had heard of that tactic when dining with little ones. He was a little over a year at the time so eating solid foods and I'd ordered chicken tenders for him.

Well, appetizers and bread basket come and are cleaned away, then salad/soup course but no chicken tenders. I'm about to ask waiter about that order and for refills on drinks for DH and I and either he didn't hear me or he ignored me. I let DS snack on saltines that came with salad, offer him croutons from my salad (which he turns down in favor of a handful of lettuce that he happily devoured and asked for more.)

Waiter comes back, takes order from table behind us, ignoring all our attempts to get his attention for various requests (drink refills, more bread, the chicken tenders?) but then he comes back with everyone's order...except the chicken tenders. We clarify, yes he heard us order it, yes they do have that menu item available (I was good, I didn't ask if they were waiting for the chicken to hatch and mature before they could make the tenders) and they had chicken tenders, they just weren't ready yet.

Well by the time they brought DS's dinner to him, DH and I had fed him off of our plates to tide him over so he wouldn't fuss and disturb the other diners so he had a few bites of the tenders then didn't want them.

The irony is that the reason we ordered them with the appetizers was so that he'd get them before our dinner was served so he wouldn't be the only one without food in front of him.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata

I've had so many horrible experiences with dermatologists that I'm shuddering at the thought of visiting one for possible laser treatment (I have scarring and pigmentation on my cheeks). I think I'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming. I'll live with the pigmentation, no matter how ugly my mother thinks I am.

Winner #1: Utterly cold, stoic, unfeeling snow queen of a woman. She pulls up my shirt before I realize what's even happening to check on my back. I mean, what the heck?!?!!! But that's not the kicker. She takes out a hypodermic needle and fills it with something from a bottle and starts jabbing it into my face. I yelp and demand in a rather strained voice what on earth she's doing. She looks at me like I'm an idiot and says, "It's an antibiotic." Horrible, horrible woman. I still see red when I think of her.

Winner #2: I have to wait half an hour in the waiting room before seeing him. He proceeds to talk to his wife on his cellphone for 15 minutes. He gives me a once over, scoffs, and scribbles a prescription.

Runner-up: Not a dermatologist technically but an allergist that my hypochondriac, overprotective mother used to drag me to when I was very small. Gives me medication that does nothing for my acne and instead proceeds to dry up and irritate my face.

#3. I had a dentist who completely instilled such fear of dentists in me 17 years ago, that I still have trouble to this day going to them. I was five months pregnant with my daughter (who turns 17 next month, WAHHH! where did the years go? ) and had to go in because a tooth was bothering me. It turned out, I needed a root canal. So, the day of the root canal I go in and he shoots me with novacaine. Shouldn't be a problem right? Wrong! Turned out, because I was preggers, he didn't give me a full dose. Then he took the little metal brush that they use to clean out the nerve and started digging. I about came out of the chair! He did this on and off for almost 20 mins, telling me oh, it just needs to take effect - oh, you're just being super sensitive, all you are really feeling is the pressure. Meanwhile, tears are streaming down my face (I was young and timid back then) and I'm hurting like the dickens. He told me I should be ready now, since he'd given me a little more novacaine due to my complaints. This time when he hit the nerve AGAIN, I didn't jump out of the seat. I grabbed him by his tie, pulled his nose down to mine and looked into his face which was like this and said in a cold, deadly voice, We are NOT going to hurt each other any more today, are WE? (I admit, between hormones and pain, I was not at my best and was more than a little ashamed of myself afterwards - but at the time, I wanted to aim for a lower and infinitely more vulnerable spot on a man) He had a look of abject fear as he tried to ease himself back and picked up the novacaine again. He finally got me numbed up and was very careful about making sure I was before he tried going back in with that dang brush thing. It was finally over. I went somewhere else for the crown work.

But, that incident scarred me for life and I avoid dentists like the plague. Before I go to the dentist now, I have a panic attack and I'm pasty in the waiting room. They don't knock me out for a cleaning, and yes, I have broken fingernails in the arms of their chairs from the effort of holding myself in there so I don't bolt out the door, but when I had to have work done, they gave me the sedation pills and did most everything at the same time. Thank goodness the office is well aware of my phobias and they work with me and are very gentle in dealing with me.

#4. A chain mechanic/auto parts store with the initials of PB. I took my vehicle to them because I had a *horrid* grinding sound coming from under the hood on the right side. They took a look, told me my brakes, rotors and calipers were all bad and I'd need over $800 in repairs. I took the car home in tears, because my then hubs was a grunt in the military and I worked at a daycare (we had NO money!). I called my father (hubs was deployed at the time), who told me to crank it and see if I could see anything grinding in there. I went out and stood there and watched the engine run for a few minutes and sure enough, I heard the grinding and saw where it was coming from. The air conditioning compressor had somehow had something separate in it, and it was grinding together hard enough to produce sparks! I unplugged it and never had a problem with the grinding again. Had a friend check the brakes and rotors and they were perfectly fine. Of course, I never had air conditioning in that car again, but when you pay $300 for a car, you can't gripe a whole lot!

#3. I had a dentist who completely instilled such fear of dentists in me 17 years ago, that I still have trouble to this day going to them. I was five months pregnant with my daughter (who turns 17 next month, WAHHH! where did the years go? ) and had to go in because a tooth was bothering me. It turned out, I needed a root canal. So, the day of the root canal I go in and he shoots me with novacaine. Shouldn't be a problem right? Wrong! Turned out, because I was preggers, he didn't give me a full dose. Then he took the little metal brush that they use to clean out the nerve and started digging. I about came out of the chair! He did this on and off for almost 20 mins, telling me oh, it just needs to take effect - oh, you're just being super sensitive, all you are really feeling is the pressure. Meanwhile, tears are streaming down my face (I was young and timid back then) and I'm hurting like the dickens. He told me I should be ready now, since he'd given me a little more novacaine due to my complaints. This time when he hit the nerve AGAIN, I didn't jump out of the seat. I grabbed him by his tie, pulled his nose down to mine and looked into his face which was like this and said in a cold, deadly voice, We are NOT going to hurt each other any more today, are WE? (I admit, between hormones and pain, I was not at my best and was more than a little ashamed of myself afterwards - but at the time, I wanted to aim for a lower and infinitely more vulnerable spot on a man) He had a look of abject fear as he tried to ease himself back and picked up the novacaine again. He finally got me numbed up and was very careful about making sure I was before he tried going back in with that dang brush thing. It was finally over. I went somewhere else for the crown work.

But, that incident scarred me for life and I avoid dentists like the plague. Before I go to the dentist now, I have a panic attack and I'm pasty in the waiting room. They don't knock me out for a cleaning, and yes, I have broken fingernails in the arms of their chairs from the effort of holding myself in there so I don't bolt out the door, but when I had to have work done, they gave me the sedation pills and did most everything at the same time. Thank goodness the office is well aware of my phobias and they work with me and are very gentle in dealing with me.

#4. A chain mechanic/auto parts store with the initials of PB. I took my vehicle to them because I had a *horrid* grinding sound coming from under the hood on the right side. They took a look, told me my brakes, rotors and calipers were all bad and I'd need over $800 in repairs. I took the car home in tears, because my then hubs was a grunt in the military and I worked at a daycare (we had NO money!). I called my father (hubs was deployed at the time), who told me to crank it and see if I could see anything grinding in there. I went out and stood there and watched the engine run for a few minutes and sure enough, I heard the grinding and saw where it was coming from. The air conditioning compressor had somehow had something separate in it, and it was grinding together hard enough to produce sparks! I unplugged it and never had a problem with the grinding again. Had a friend check the brakes and rotors and they were perfectly fine. Of course, I never had air conditioning in that car again, but when you pay $300 for a car, you can't gripe a whole lot!

I have *never* had Novocaine work for a root canal (I'll not reveal how many I've had, suffice to say, more than one). If you have, please let me know how much was required. I *always* know when the nerve is being touched.

Many Americans want to do something – hit BP where it hurts or, at least, affect its bottom line. But that's hard for individual consumers to do.

• Boycott local BP stations? The oil giant makes only a small portion of its profits from retail gas sales, and can sell excess fuel to other retailers. The fuel the 10,000 BP gas stations in the United States pumps also comes from a variety of refineries, so consumers can't be sure they're buying oil that came from a BP well. And the stations are all run by small business owners with contracts to BP, which are difficult and costly to break.

“Anytime you boycott a local gas station you’re doing far more harm to that station owner than who they’re buying their gas from,” said Brandon Wright, a spokesman from the Petroleum Marketers Association of America.

Logged

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata